Home Office arrests four men at Asian Fusion after raid

A raid on the Asian Fusion restaurant by immigration officers has left to the arrest of four men.

The officers from Home Office Immigration Enforcement burst into the restaurant in Bath Road, Littlewick Green at about 12.30pm yesterday where they carried out immigration checks on members of staff.

They arrested four men from Bangladesh aged between 22 and 35 for over-staying their visas. Three were in the restaurant, a fourth was found in residential accommodation above the business. All four were detained pending their removal from the UK.

The raid was witnessed by Maidenhead resident Victoria Spracklen who was in the restaurant with work colleagues.

She said: "They pulled all the staff out of the kitchen and put them in a corner. It was just like you see on the television. They were demanding passports, ID, asking why they were here.

"We just carried on eating. About 10 staff were being questioned but there were three left who carried on serving us."

Asian Fusion will now have to prove to the Home Office that the correct right-to-work checks were carried out on the men.

The restaurant was caught out before when it was raided by the old UK Border Agency (UKBA) on November 30, 2010. It was fined £10,000 after three Bangladeshi men were found working there illegally.

This week assistant director Paul Smith, head of the Home Office Thames Valley Immigration Enforcement team, said: “This is the latest in a series of operations we have carried out in Berkshire targeting illegal immigration and illegal working. More are planned in the future."

Anyone with information about immigration crime can contact Crimestoppers on 0800 555111 or anonymously on 101.